July TBR

The year is moving very fast now. It's interesting a few weeks felt interminable and then suddenly now it's already July, already halfway through 2020 has come and gone!

Last month was not great but I had already set up the To Be Read pile for July and here it is:

For the Literally Dead Book Club

*Zone One by Colson Whitehead 

A pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild­ing civilization under orders from the provisional govern­ment based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.
Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams work­ing in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.

*Upright women wanted by Sarah Gailey 

Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her--a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.
The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

*White like me: Reflections on Race from Privilege Son by Tim Wise 

In White Like Me, Tim Wise offers a highly personal examination of the ways in which racial privilege shapes the lives of most white Americans, overtly racist or not, to the detriment of people of color, themselves, and society. The book shows the breadth and depth of the phenomenon within institutions such as education, employment, housing, criminal justice, and healthcare. By critically assessing the magnitude of racial privilege and its enormous costs, Wise provides a rich memoir that will inspire activists, educators, or anyone interested in understanding the way that race continues to shape the experiences of people in the U.S. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and scholarly, analytical and accessible.

*Duende poems by Tracy K. Smith 

Duende, that dark and elusive force described by Federico García Lorca, is the creative and ecstatic power an artist seeks to channel from within. It can lead the artist toward revelation, but it must also, Lorca says, accept and even serenade the possibility of death. Tracy K. Smith's bold second poetry collection explores the history and the intersections of folk traditions, political resistance, and personal survival. Duende gives passionate testament to suppressed cultures, and allows them to sing.

*Saga vol 6 and 7 by Brian K. Vaughan 

After a dramatic time jump, the three-time Eisner Award winner for Best Continuing Series continues to evolve, as Hazel begins the most exciting adventure of her life: kindergarten. Meanwhile, her starcrossed family learns hard lessons of their own.
Vol 6 Collecting: Saga 31-36

Vol 7 Collecting: Saga 37-42

*Walking dead Vol 13 and 14 by Robert Kirkman 

Vol 13 Far too gone: For survivors of the zombie apocalypse, hopes are not lifting. As others try to keep their mind on practicalities, former policeman Rick Grimes seems increasingly on edge. As his behavior grows more and more conspicuously eccentric, other group members worry that he is putting them all in mortal danger.

Vol 14 No way out: The survivors of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's Eisner Award-winning post-apocalyptic survival adventure have found relative safety in the confines of the community's walls—or have they? As conflicts continue within, the undead approach from the outside. Everyone is forced to make hard decisions, and this chapter of New York Times Best-Seller The Walking Dead proves again- no one is safe.

*The seven dials mystery by Agatha Christie 

The second work in the Superindent Battle series. A healthy young man dies in his sleep, despite the ringing of eight separate alarm clocks.
Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper; so the other house guests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6.30 a.m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank had backfired with tragic consequences.

*The murder at the vicarage by Agatha Christie 

This is the first installment in the Miss Maple series. ‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at large a favour!’ It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later – when the colonel was found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

*Dance Macabre by Stephen King 

A nonfiction from the master of Horror.

Stephen King decided to address the topic of what makes horror horrifying and what makes terror terrifying. Here, in ten brilliantly written chapters, King delivers one colorful observation after another about the great stories, books, and films that comprise the horror genre—from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Exorcist, The Twilight Zone, and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.
With the insight and good humor his fans appreciated in On Writing, Danse Macabre is an enjoyably entertaining tour through Stephen King’s beloved world of horror.

*Oz, the Complete Collection  vol 3 by L. Frank Baum 

The seventh, eighth, and ninth titles of the iconic Oz series, now in one collection!
In The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the Munchkins Unc Nunkie and Ojo the Unlucky call on the Crooked Magician, who introduces them to his latest creation: a living girl made out of patchwork quilts and cotton stuffing. But when an accident leaves beloved Unc Nunkie a motionless statue, it is up to Ojo to save him. Can the mighty Wizard of Oz help?
In Tik-Tok of Oz, Betsy Bobbin and her loyal mule, Hank, wash up on the shores of an unknown fairyland during a storm. There they meet the clockwork man Tik-Tok and find themselves trapped in a battle with the king of the Nomes.
In The Scarecrow of Oz, Cap’n Bill and Trot journey to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrow the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland, who has been busy gathering an army for an invasion of Oz. Will they be able to stop the invasion?

*Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.
Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

*The eye of the world by Robert Jordan

This is the first in the well-known series a wheel of time. 

What do I know about it? Not much and even reading the book description gives me nothing but I want to know the series that is a favorite for plenty of people. 

*The reptile room by Lemoney Snicket

This is the second book in A Series of unfortunate events that describes the journey of a trio of orphan siblings and Count Olaf as they try to be safe from his greedy hands. 

The book descriptions and the narrator in general are snarky and funny even if it's trying to tell us a very tragic story.

It is a reread but I have not returned to this in so long it feels like the first time reading the story. I would like to get through as much of this series as possible and finally finish it. I must know how it ends, doe sit have a happy ever after?

(Optional) If I have time and manage to find it  I would like to get to (if I don't get to it it's fine, I'll add it to an official TBR later on):

*Anger is a gift by Mark Oshiro 

Six years ago, Moss Jefferies' father was murdered by an Oakland police officer. Along with losing a parent, the media's vilification of his father and lack of accountability has left Moss with near crippling panic attacks.
Now, in his sophomore year of high school, Moss and his fellow classmates find themselves increasingly treated like criminals by their own school. New rules. Random locker searches. Constant intimidation and Oakland Police Department stationed in their halls. Despite their youth, the students decide to organize and push back against the administration.
When tensions hit a fever pitch and tragedy strikes, Moss must face a difficult choice: give in to fear and hate or realize that anger can actually be a gift.

Though because I was unable to get through the TBR for June now I have to also read those books this month. So I have 9 books from that list to add here as well. 

Too many to mention in a single post, I'll just make a different section for those and post it later.